I found out that Jon McGregor was going to be giving a talk and signing books in his local Waterstones, in Nottingham, so I bought this book and read almost all of it before that evening.

After the talk, he signed it for me (and another of his books, ‘So Many Ways to Begin’).

His writing style is so haunting and gentle, reading this book non-stop for several hours lulled me into a sort of trance. In person, McGregor was quiet and seemed almost shy. He read from his novel ‘Even the Dogs’, which I have yet to read.